


Beyond This Fading Existence

by HalfshellVenus



Series: Paradise [4]
Category: Prison Break
Genre: Community: 60_minute_fics, Community: fanfic100, M/M, Male Slash, Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-14
Updated: 2015-07-14
Packaged: 2018-04-09 03:12:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4331559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HalfshellVenus/pseuds/HalfshellVenus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(An interlude in "The Arrangement" series): Michael lights a long-forgotten fire inside Lincoln.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Beyond This Fading Existence

**Author's Note:**

> A birthday gift for [](http://happywriter06.livejournal.com/profile)[happywriter06](http://happywriter06.livejournal.com/)!  
> A [](http://60-minute-fics.livejournal.com/profile)[**60_minute_fics**](http://60-minute-fics.livejournal.com/) project, also for my [](http://fanfic100.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://fanfic100.livejournal.com/)**fanfic100** Michael/Lincoln challenge, this is "Taste"— and not at all how I thought I'd be writing this prompt.

x-x-x-x-x

In Fox River, where the days taste like death and the air like ash, Lincoln finds the one thing that tastes of life:

Michael.

It's not the promise of escape that makes the difference—for who can promise the impossible and really mean it? It isn't that.

It's not the spark that comes from stepping over old taboos, or the feeling that someone sees him, someone's _listening_. Lincoln's too tired for any of that to matter.

That Michael _loves him_ reaches down inside his sleepwalking soul. Lincoln knew that, always— though not the type or depth of love (or maybe he _did_ and chose to ignore it). Michael loving him isn't the key.

What matters is the opposite instead: Michael caring whether Lincoln loves him back.

Other people care, Lincoln knows. Veronica, hot and cold over the years and engaged to another man now, she wants forgiveness to settle between them. LJ, of course, but Lincoln's love is nearly useless—it doesn't bring security or assurances, and soon enough it'll end in death.

All Michael wants—only _hopes_ for, never demands—is for Lincoln to love him on that deeper, more intimate level. Trapped in prison, it's one of the few things Lincoln can still do.

Michael tastes like life, because kissing him brings the essence of living back to the lost world of Lincoln's boxed-in, measured-out days.

The taste is exhilarating, unstoppable.

It's enough to make a man believe that _anything_ is possible.

 

 

_\----- fin -----_


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